Website Accessibility for All.
An accessible Website design can reap huge rewards for your business.
Accessibility in Web Design is about making your website reachable to customers using non-standard browsers
and new technologies, such as a PDAs and mobile phones,
and via assistive technologies used by the disabled (e.g. screen readers).
As well as the good business and ethical reasons, there is also a need for legal compliance with the
DDA
to enable access by disabled users. More about the DDA: DDA Overview.
Online Companies and the Web Accessibility Laws (PDF) is a businesslink REDTAPE factsheet which is also available from their Hotline on 0845 050 0080.
Web Accessibility Standards.
The accepted accessibility standard for design of Websites is the
W3C-WAI
Guidelines.
We design our sites to be compliant with these guidelines.
BigEasy design with both Usability and Accessibility in mind.
Combining Accessibility with Usability makes sense to you and your customers.
The need for a Holistic Approach.
In 2004, the DRC conducted a survey of over 1000 Websites and found that over 80% were practically
impossible for disabled people to use.
Moreover, when testing WAI compliant Websites, many people
still had problems using them. They concluded that WAI compliance on its own was not enough.
Basic USABILITY rules cure most problems found on the above compliant Websites.
Usability rules often ignored by other designers.
These include:
- ensure content makes sense when page layout design is removed,
- make page titles specific to their page content,
- reduce the number of, and clearly identify, necessary links,
- make navigation design consistent throughout the site,
- link all pages to the Home page (EXCEPT the Home page itself),
- remove links which link back to the page they are on (self-referencing),
- improve search design - some visitors prefer site search to navigation,
- eradicate excessively deep site structures.
This is why BigEasy design sites for Usability and Accessibility.
Combining Accessibility with Usability means your Website makes sense to your disabled customers.
